Murder City
by MidnightRhymer
Summary: It was a dark and stormy night when she stumbled back into Danny's life. But he doesn't know what 4 years of being married to an abusive rapist have done to her. And her falling for Flack isn't helping. Did I mention she's 19? DF/OC, established D/L RnR
1. Preface Godless Nation

Preface- We Will See How Godless A Nation We Have Become

It was a stormy night at the NYPD precinct when she stumbled in. Her hair, once probably sleek, shiny, and black, was hanging from her head in wet waves. Her long, blue fringe was stuck to the sides of her face. All in all, had she not been crying, it would have made for an interesting spectacle.

Lindsay Monroe and Mac Taylor recognized her immediately as Angelica Messer, Danny's dearest sister. Lindsay recognized her from the picture of Danny, Louie, and the girl, who she had previously only known as Angie. Mac recognized her from her last meeting with Danny, where she had told him that she was going away to San Francisco for a while and that she would be back eventually. Until he had been told otherwise, Mac had assumed they were lovers, due to her parting remark, which was "Don't wait for me." Later, Danny had told him that when they were younger, and later when it was just Danny and Angie, they would tell each other where they were going and when they would be back. The last thing any of the siblings would say would be don't wait for me, meaning that if you had something to do, but you wanted to wait, you didn't. Angie had started it, Danny told Mac. Angie had always told them never to live their lives with regrets.

A man came in behind her, and when he dropped his hood, they recognized him as Sheldon Hawkes. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders, and Sheldon led Angelica to where Lindsay and Mac stood.

"Mac, I think we need to sit down with this young lady and have a chat. Is Danny on call?" he said.

"No, he's not. I can bring him on if that-"

"No, that's good. He has a hell of a temper Mr. Taylor, and he doesn't need to hear this," Angelica cut him off. While her demeanor was childlike, she was strong in her words, despite her tears.

"Eventually, he'll find out," Mac said softly, adding his arm to her shoulders.

"But he doesn't need to hear the details, Mr. Taylor..."

"And what case does this deal with, Sheldon?"

"The Faux Rape Spree," Sheldon answered.


	2. 1 Your Soul Is Dying Jonothan Faux

Chapter One- Little Girl, Your Soul Is Dying (The Case of Jonothan Faux)

Angelica Marie Constantine Ambrose-Messer-Faux sat silently across from Mac Taylor in interrogation. Lindsay Monroe was just inside the door when she spoke her first words.

"You'd better have a tape recorder, Mr. Taylor. I can only tell this once, and then you can take me to the hospital to do whatever tests you want on me. I don't care. But you'd better be listening. Can you handle that?" Angelica asked softly.

"Yes, I can, Ms. Messer," Mac answered, and he brought a tape recorder up onto the table.

"It's Mrs. Faux, and it will be for a few more days," Angelica corrected darkly.

Mac tried not to allow shock to claim him. Instead he turned on the tape recorder. "Please state your full name for the record." Outside, Don Flack sauntered up to the window and looked in.

"Is this the new witness?"

"Yes. She said that Danny gave her two numbers to call if she needed anything. One was mine and the other was his," Hawkes said softly, staring in with Flack.

"I'm surprised he didn't give her mine," Flack commented.

"My name is Angelica Marie Constantine Ambrose-Messer-Faux. I have been married to Jonothan Faux for five of my nineteen years of life. I was declared legally an adult at thirteen, graduated at fourteen, married at fourteen, and went away to Princeton at fourteen. I came back to my husband a year later with an honorary Ph. D. From that day until yesterday at four in the morning, I have not seen the light of day. Jonothan Faux kept me chained in the basement of his home in Brooklyn for four years. I was not allowed to eat or drink unless it was given to me. My chain was long enough to allow me to travel to the bathroom and to my bed. I was not to mess on the bed. If I did, I would be beaten and raped severely by Jonothan. If I was a good girl, I was treated to a nightly poker game that always ended in my being raped by Jonothan and several of his friends. They used foreign objects or their penises; it didn't matter to them. At seventeen, I became pregnant. My husband brought a pipe wrench down into the basement and hit me upside the head with it six months after conception. He succeeded in subduing me and then proceeded to perform an abortion with the use of 32 gallons of bleach and a twisted metal coat hanger. He brought me into the doctor's office where I expelled my unborn dead children and all the after birth. That night, he raped me himself. Yesterday, at approximately one in the morning, he descended into my basement bedroom and proceeded to rape me. After he was finished, he forgot about the pipe wrench he had brought down with him. When he came down at four, I proceeded to hit him in the knee caps with it. I then used my right foot to kick him in the head, effectively knocking him out. I stole the keys to my leg chain from his back pocket and unlocked myself. I ascended into the cool morning air and stole this shirt and these jeans from his closet. I then ran to my brother Louis's apartment. He gave me fifty dollars when I asked for money. I told him nothing of my plight. I then proceeded to get myself a decent meal and using the change I called Sheldon Hawkes from a number that my brother gave me four years ago. Dr. Hawkes came to my location at the payphone outside the McDonalds on 42nd Street and picked me up. He then brought me here. I have not showered nor brushed nor changed clothes since I escaped at four AM yesterday morning."

"Why did it take until now to get to Dr. Hawkes?" Mac asked.

"I was at my brother's doorstep until he came home at about eight o'clock last night. He made me spend the night there," Angelica answered.

"How many times were you raped?" Mac asked.

"In five years, I have been sexually abused five hundred and ninety seven times by my husband, seven hundred and ninety times by my husband and his friends, and four hundred and fifty times by my husband's friends," Angelica replied, and Lindsay saw tears at the corner of her eyes. She had memorized the speech and the figures.

"At any time did he charge his friends for the use of your body?"

"No. Their fee for using me was showing up to the poker game. Occasionally, they would take me to their homes under cover of darkness and send me back under that same cover. Otherwise, I stayed in the basement or in the living room."

"What do you have in that bag, Mrs. Faux?" Mac asked.

In an answer, she pulled the large clutch from the folds of her over large t-shirt and upturned it, spilling the contents. Eighteen hundred and thirty five individually bagged condoms spilled onto the table. Each one was given a day, a time, and a name.

"There are one thousand, eight hundred, and thirty-five condoms there. I was raped twice unprotected, both times by my husband. The first got me pregnant. The second was yesterday morning."

Lindsay Monroe turned her head in sorrow. Danny would be very angry at her for not telling her what was going on, and she knew it.

"Danny has to know about this," Flack growled.

"No, Flack! Angelica came forward on the basis that Danny would only be told the basic facts; she was raped and held against her will for four years. He's not to be told anything else, or she'll annul her testimony and go back into the woodwork. She has no driver's liscense; she's untraceable," Hawkes said softly.

"Danny's my best friend. I can't just not tell him that his little sister has been raped eighteen hundred and thirty-seven times by her husband and the assholes he paled around with!" Flack snarled.

"Flack, think about it. Jonothan Faux needs us to slip up once to get a clean break. If he gets off cleanly, he'll find her and do worse. If Danny finds out the extent of this, then he'll go berserk. He can never know how deep this goes, at least not until Faux is safely behind bars," Hawkes said bracingly.

"Then at least let me make it up to him by taking her into protective custody. He doesn't have to know right now, but when he does find out where she's at, he'll know she's been taken care of," Flack replied, relaxing against the wall.

"Who'll know what?" Danny Messer asked from the doorway. "And who is he interrogating?"

"Just a witness for the Faux case. Danny, if you'll step outside please, I'm going to go get the evidence that needs to be processed," Hawkes said smoothly.

"Ok..." Danny said, confused but knowing how important it was to do what was asked of him concerning the Faux case.

As Danny exited the room, Hawkes stepped into the interrogation room.

"Danny is in the building Mac. I'm going to have him process the semen and vaginal contributions on the condoms, but I'll need a reference sample, Mrs. Faux," Hawkes told the older man.

"Thank god that's not my writing. Label it Marie Faux if you put it in the system. It's the name I'm married under," Angelica said softly.

Hawkes swabbed her cheek and then helped her out of the chair. "Lindsay, if you'll please take her to the hospital so she can have an SAE kit done, it'd be a great help."

"Bring your camera. You can get pictures of the bruises and scars. You'll need everything you can get to convict him and his buddies," Angelica spat.

At the hospital, as Angelica was getting dressed, she revealed just how in-tuned to people she was.

"You and my brother are together, aren't you?" she asked as she re-buttoned her jeans.

"Yes... but... how did you know?" Lindsay asked rather bluntly.

"It was the way that you stiffened when you found out Danny had come in that clenched it, but I had my guesses when you recognized me right off the bat. Mr. Taylor was there when Danny and I last spoke, four years ago, but you weren't. The only person who would know who I was would be someone that shared Danny's bedroom long enough to notice the picture on his bed stand. You have a child with him, too, don't you?" Angelica explained.

"Y-Yes..."

"You have the look of a mother. I'd ask if I could see my niece, but..." she spread her arms wide in a shrugging motion. "What can you do?"

Lindsay silently escorted her out of the hospital room and to Flack. She gave him a small nod and a gentle smile before she went over to the nurse to collect the SAE kit and get it back to the lab.

"Have you ever had New York style Mac and Cheese?" Flack asked carefully, looking down at the frail girl. She was standing about three feet away from him and her eyes were downcast. She shook her head softly in the negative and tried to think happy thoughts. "Then boy do I have a treat for you!"

_"Then take me to emergency because somethin' seems to be missing,"_ Angelica whispered as she stepped into Flack's apartment. The light flicked on, and Angelica was greeted by sharp emerald walls and a soft looking sofa.

"So, the bedroom is back there. You can have the bed and I'll take the couch out here-"

"No... I'll take the couch," Angelica said softly.

"Why would you want to sleep on the couch?" Flack asked curiously as he set about fixing "New York style Mac and Cheese."

"I-I don't want to ruin your sheets," she whispered, and she held up one hand. Her fingernails were jagged, rough claws, and there was a lot of dirt beneath them. Flack was struck for the first time by how lost and alone she looked. She was dirty and sweaty, but underneath it all, she looked to be a very beautiful young woman. It didn't help that she was young, but she had lived through more than most people her age had ever hoped to last through.

"I think I have something that'll cheer you up," Don said softly, and he started toward the hall leading to his bedroom. He heard her bare feet padding softly behind him and he realized that she probably hadn't had a shower in weeks. Silently, he flipped on the light to the master bathroom, and watched as a small smile lit her features.

"Are you implying that I stink?" she asked sarcastically, a bit of her Messer blood showing. "Not that I don't," she added.

"Not at all. I just assumed you'd like a shower, but if you don't want one..." Flack trailed off and he went to shut the light off. Angelica reached a hand over to stop him, but as soon as her fingers touched his skin, she jumped and stepped back a little.

Flack's smile faded to a look of deepest sorrow.

"Ok, ummm, my newest ex-girlfriend left a bunch of stuff in the shower, so feel free to use it. I'll go find the nail trimmers if you want to use them. I've got a spare t-shirt and some jeans that are clean. I'll lay them out on the bed. Tomorrow, you and Stella can go get some stuff in your size," Flack said softly, and he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. He heard the lock click home, and the soft rustling of clothes issued out of the room.

A loud knock sounded on the door, and Flack opened it to see Danny Messer standing on his mat.

"Lindsay told me that Angie was a victim in the Faux case. She also told me that you had taken her into protective custody. I figured that she could use some clothes and underwear. If... If you could tell her that she can call me at any time at all, I'd appreciate it very much. I'll see you tomorrow," Danny said, and he handed Flack a small grocery bag full of clothes.

Flack took it and nodded. He choked on his would-be invitation for Danny to come inside. They both knew that Angie was barely ready for contact from Flack, let alone from her brother. Flack leaned out of the apartment and embraced Danny in a one-armed hug. He said his good-bye then and there before he shut the door and headed back into the bed room. What he saw deeply aroused him and enraged him so totally that he held the counter to keep from breaking anything for a full half hour before he regained the courage to go back in the room.

Angie stood with her back to him, and she began to very slowly peel the cloth bandages off the many cuts on her body. She had not stepped into the shower at all. She was, however, quite naked, and Flack could see that she had the shapely curve of a woman born to fit a man. He quickly shielded his eyes and cleared his throat. He heard Angie jump behind the door.

"Danny stopped by to drop off some clothes for you. I assumed that you'd want them," Flack said softly, and he set them inside the door. "He also asked me to tell you that you can call him any time at all if you need to talk."

"Thank you, Detective," she said in the strongest voice she could muster.

It was barely a squeak.

_**Babygurl1944- Do you see how Don fits in now? *quirks eyebrows suggestively***_

_**Read and review guys, and if you like this, be sure to check out **__**Do You Know The Enemy**__**!!!!!!!**_

_**(This has been a shameless advertisement by Midnight Rhymer industries)**_


	3. 2 Not Fuckin Around Junkie To The Choir

Chapter Two- I'm Not Fuckin' Around (Junkie Preaching To The Choir)

"Danny, I'm being serious! You cannot look at the transcripts of your sister's interview!" Stella Bonasarah shouted. Her arms were spread wide in front of Danny as he attempted to march into Mac Taylor's office and demand a copy.

"And why not?! This is one hell of a way to find out that my sister is still alive, you know. I want to know what happened, and if she isn't going to tell me, Mac Taylor is!" Danny shouted back.

"Danny, this is the wrong way to go about learning what happened to her. She asked us not to let you read the transcripts from any of the interviews," Stella replied softly.

Danny froze. He had never before been denied by his sister; she let him know anything. For her to refuse to tell him something meant that she was afraid he would be outraged even more by something he heard. Danny backed down carefully, and he sank down the nearest wall in silence. His eyes teared up, not because he had been denied by his sister, but because something truly diabolical had to have happened to her in order for him to do so.

"Flack?" Stella said curiously, but her voice was panicked.

"Danny?!" came a small, female voice that Danny recognized. He knew it intimately.

He turned his teary eyes to the right and watched as a very small, very young girl raced up to him from behind Flack's protective arms. As she neared, Danny dropped his knees and opened his arms, catching Angelica on the fly. He simply held her there, in the protective shield of his arms as he heard a collective awe from most of his team. Lindsay approached the pair carefully and knelt beside them, a smile stuck on her face. Danny closed his eyes and tightened his arms around her. He felt a gentle tightening of the arms around him in return. Finally, they both let go. Angelica sat back on her haunches, her face a bright red.

"Hey there, Angie-pie," Danny said, his voice strangled to a near whisper.

"Hey, Danny-O," she replied in kind, and the blood seeped out of her face.

"How are you today?" Danny asked softly, his eyes having lost all trace of the rage they had held two minutes ago.

"I'm... I'm ok. How are you?" Angelica asked softly.

"I'm alright. What'dya say we get out of the middle of the hallway?" Danny asked, and he watched as the blood crept back into her cheeks again.

"Ok," Angelica whispered softly, and Danny stood her and himself up simultaneously.

"You can't run away from Flack like that, Angie. You know that, right," Danny admonished as they headed for Mac's office.

"I know. I was just scared that you were hurt or something," Angie said as Danny opened the glass doors to Mac's office.

"Danny, have you run the tests on those- You know, you don't have to be back in here for a week, Angelica. You can take all the time you need," Mac said softly, getting up out of his desk chair.

Angelica, five foot two inches, stood very carefully tucked under Danny, who was five foot ten inches tall, and his protective arm. When Mac spoke, she took one careful, calculated step forward, and her eyes turned to stone.

"I don't need time," she said coldly. Her demeanor was like nothing Mac had ever witnessed; save that single time he had ever seen Danny so cold, after the shooting of his next-door-neighbor's son. He had surmised that it was a Danny thing, like so much else about him was. Instead, he was coming to find that a lot of it was a Messer thing.

The glass door swooshed open again, and Flack stepped inside. "I brought her in so she and Stella could get her some clothes that will fit her. Before I could tell Stella what was going on, she was headed up here with Danny," Flack said softly.

"I don't need time, Detective Taylor, and if you want to get this bastard, the thing you have the least amount of is time," Angelica said, reinforcing the idea that she was detached from everything.

"Flack, take her down to interrogation. I'll be down there shortly," Mac told the officer.

Flack put one arm around her shoulders and guided her to the door. Danny went to the glass doors behind them, but Mac called for him to stop. He turned to face his boss.

"She doesn't want you down there, and she has good reason not to, Danny. She trusts you to stay away and keep professional. Everyone she's trusted so far has let her down. Don't let yourself fall into that category, Danny. She loves you more than anyone else, I can tell," Mac said softly.

"I know. I'll process the condoms and get the results back to you," Danny said softly, and he descended into the lab. Flack and Angelica went to the left; Danny hooked right and went into the DNA lab.

"I'd like to, if I can, bring up the May 15, 2005 encounter. That was the first time, if I recall correctly, that your husband, Jonothan Faux sexually assaulted you, right?" Mac said.

"Yes. I had come back from here after telling my brother, Daniel Messer, that I would be in San Francisco. I told him that I would be on the West coast because I knew he would never have time to come visit me out there, so I wouldn't have to worry about him coming looking for me and getting into trouble. When I walked into the house, Jonothan Faux asked me where I had been. I told him that I had been out, and that was all he ever needed to know. I remember... looking out the bay window at the sun. Some part of me knew that that was the last time I'd ever see daylight again," Angelica said softly, and she repressed a shiver as she started speaking again, "He stood up from his chair and approached me. I was standing in the foyer. He grabbed me by my hair and bent my head upward to look at him. He said, and I quote, 'You're mine, bitch. If I ask you where you were, you're going to tell me where you were, who you were with, how long you were there, how many times you used the restroom, and how many inches you covered.' I told him that what I did with my time was my business, not his. I managed to untangle his hand from my hair and was headed for the door when he grabbed me by my arm. He said 'I guess I'll have to take your time away,' and he pulled me away from the door. He took me to the grand staircase that led to the foyer and from there to the kitchen and the dining room, and he took the side to the right of the staircase. He opened a small door and started descending down a spiral staircase. He threw me onto the small bed that was down there and proceeded to strip me. He assaulted me there, and then, as I was trying to recover, he pulled a chain off the floor and clapped the manacle on the end to my ankle. He then left me down there."

Mac watched as she blinked away tears before he asked his next question. "How did you know to keep the condom?"

"I didn't. He labeled and dated all of them. I found them in the top drawer of his dresser when I was looking for clothes. I made sure to take all of them," Angelica answered.

"What makes you so sure that they were from his rape of you?" Mac asked.

"I had heard him bring girls home before. He would rape them, and then kill them. Then, he'd come down into the basement and make me watch as he peeled the condom off and threw it into the trash. I assumed he did that with mine to, but I'd never seen him take one off after he was done with me," Angelica replied.

"Did you ever cease fighting him when he raped you?" Mac asked.

And, at this question, Angelica almost broke down. "I... I just wanted the bastard to get off me and stay off me. I didn't care if he killed me, I just wanted it to end. After the first year, I knew he planned to keep me as long as he could..." she choked out.

She lowered her small, fragile head to the table and rested herself for a moment. Mac let her.

Outside the window, Flack was clutching the back of the chair he was standing behind with all his might. The last thing he wanted or needed was to start breaking things at work, but knowing that, all the time that she had been in the basement, she had been forced to hear the final screams of the other women that Jonothan Faux preyed on. Whether she was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or now, nineteen, she had been forced to hear those screams. And, what he did to her in that basement; she'd be fortunate if she was ever able to trust anything with a penis again. She had already shown how afraid she was of Flack, and Flack had at no time ever attempted to touch her in a way that made her uncomfortable. The only man left on the planet that she didn't flinch at was Danny, but Danny could not be allowed to have protective custody of his sister; he was too rash and bold.

In the room, Angelica lifted her head, having gathered her wits, and was now staring at Mac.

"That's all for today. If anything comes to you of importance, please, let Detective Flack know," Mac said, and he shut the recorder off. "On a more personal note, after the case goes to trial and Danny testifies, I think it would be wise for you to tell him what happened. He doesn't like being in the dark."

"I know he doesn't, Detective Taylor, but he doesn't need to know right now. He needs his head in the game," Angelica said softly. "And, I really don't want him to lose the badge that we gave up our parents for."

Mac was thunderstruck; he hadn't known the reason behind Danny's careful no contact with his parents until Angelica had come along and told him, but now that he knew it seemed blatantly obvious.

Angelica opened the door to the interrogation room and stepped out. Very cautiously, Lindsay approached the young girl. Silently, she wrapped her arms around the teen and pulled her close. "We're going to get him for this. We're going to get him and he's going to go away for a long time," she whispered softly.

"I know you are. My brother's working on this; you're going to get him, and from what I've heard, everyone else here is top notch, too," Angelica mumbled as she awkwardly hugged Lindsay back.

Lindsay let her go, and Flack stepped up beside her. "What'dya say we go find Stella, huh?"

"Sure," Angelica said, but there was no enthusiasm in her voice.

"I thought girls liked shopping?" Flack said softly.

"I was more the Sit-Out-In-The-Garage-And-Help-Dad-Fix-The-Family-Van kinda girl. Not really into the whole shopping thing," Angelica answered.

"I'm sure Stella and you will have a ball," Flack replied with a smile.

"How much money do we have?" Stella asked Flack as they walked down the front steps.

"As of right now, none," Flack answered, "But I was going to-"

"If you'll take me to an ATM, I can fix that real fast," Angelica giggled.

"Please tell me we're not doing anything illegal..." Stella laughed.

"No, but... Danny openly disagreed with Dad so much that he didn't get a drop of the money he had saved up. But, I was the good little girl; Danny and I agreed in private, but I kept my mouth shut when Dad was around. So, I got all the trust money; all three and a half million of it; when I turned eighteen. Turns out, I didn't need it. My wonderfully rich asshole of a husband put me through the one year of college it took me to get an honorary Ph. D."

"How much do you think we'll need?" Flack asked over the top of her head.

"Depends on who's buying lunch," Stella replied.

"I've got it covered. I'm never going to use it anyway. I might get my own place eventually but the worst thing I could possibly do is splurge on DVDs and a few books," Angelica laughed.

"I thought you said you weren't into the whole shopping thing," Flack said, his eyebrow raised.

"I'm not, but if I'm buying, I get to go where I want, right?" Angelica asked.

"Yeah..." Stella said, not liking where the conversation was going.

"I'll make you a deal; don't laugh and you can pick where we go to lunch."

"Deal. Where are we going for the clothes?"

"Well, there's this store that I've heard about-"

"How did you measure time in the basement?" Flack asked suddenly.

"He didn't keep me completely cut off from civilization... I had a laptop, and I hacked into the next-door-neighbor's internet connection. I was going to send for help... but I didn't know how to do that without be labeled an attention seeker. I learned a lot from the internet," Angelica answered, her eyes downcast and afraid.

"Makes sense," Flack replied. "You were saying about the clothing store?"

"Right, well I found it on the internet, but I didn't have a credit card and I couldn't get the basement windows open, so I just sat there and looked at stuff, but now I'm out and I have money..."

"What's the store?" Flack laughed.

"Hot Topic," Angelica answered.

"Danny wasn't lying when he said you were a little strange," Flack chuckled.

Stella stepped up to one side of Angelica and Flack followed on the other side. Together, the trio journeyed to the nearest ATM, where Angelica, who thought for a moment, withdrew five hundred dollars.

For the first time since Flack had seen her, Angelica had worn a genuine smile on her face for over three hours. They had managed to get her away from Hot Topic before she bought the entire store, and she had enough clothes to last her for two weeks, which she said was good, because she only did laundry every week. Flack found that out of the fourteen t-shirts she bought, six had sexual references, seven were band t-shirts, and she bought one Legend of Zelda shirt, explaining that, when she was younger, it had been her favorite game. Flack was impressed by the ease at which she was able to interact with the people around her. It was as if the past four years hadn't happened to her. But, having slept in the same apartment with the young girl, he knew that she was painfully aware of what had happened to her.

"The usual place, Stell?" Flack asked, his arm protectively around Angelica's shoulders.

Stella nodded, smiling at the detective. Flack brushed it off and started off down the street. Silently, they entered the sports bar, and Flack tightened his grip on the young girl's shoulders.


	4. 3 I Knew Better Daddy's Love

Chapter Three- I Knew Better (Daddy's Love)

Later that night, as Flack fixed dinner for himself and his guest, he couldn't help but wonder at how she was able to be so upbeat and happy, when other rape victims he had seen were so sorrowful and didn't want to do anything at all. Instead of wondering for too long, however, he plated the spaghetti at the island in the middle of his kitchen and waited.

When Flack had opened the door to the apartment, Angelica had immediately set about stacking her clothes in the corner. When Flack had called back that he was fixing dinner, she had asked if she could use the bathroom while he did so. When Flack had okayed it, she had buried herself inside with the door locked. Now, he heard the door open and the swish of clothing as she came out of the bedroom and walked to the island. He turned to find her seated on the stool at the far side of the island. She looked up at him from a curtain of wet fringe and smiled sheepishly. She was wearing the clothes that he had laid out for her the night before; a pair of jeans and a long sleeve button up shirt that was the same emerald color as the walls of the living room. Her eyes were guarded and she was worried.

"This is alright, isn't it?" she asked softly, her eyes cast upward.

"Yes, it's fine," Flack replied. His eyes were tender as he handed her the shaker of parmesan and a fork. She took them with a small, grateful smile and began to add the cheese to her meal. Flack sat down across from her and watched as she handed the cheese back. A question had been bugging him all day, and he was about ready to ask it. It wasn't table-top discussion, but it was better than anything else he had to talk about. "Stop me when I start to pry, but did he force you to marry him?"

At first, Angelica just stared at him. She was silent as she chewed her food, but Flack could tell that she was mulling over her answer. Finally, she swallowed and looked him dead in the eyes for the first time. "This isn't going to be an easy thing to understand unless you've talked to Danny about our dad. It isn't going to be pleasant, and you'll probably want to wait until after dinner," she said softly.

"I've talked to Danny about Mr. Messer, Angelica," Flack said softly before shoving a forkful of spaghetti into his own mouth.

"If you can still call him Mr. Messer, Danny must not have told you very much. My father was not a very nice man, but aside from that, he was very busy. If you asked him a question, the answer he gave was I don't give a damn, and that was the closest thing to a yes we could ever get out of him, and it was always an easy alternative to begging Mom. If you could get him to say that he gave a damn, then you had power. I could ask him if I could go out with anyone, and I'd get the answer I don't give a damn. But I walked up to him and asked if I could go out with Jonothan Faux, and he'd say no. I'd ask why, and he'd say it was because he gave a damn. Danny told me that his giving a damn gave me power. I wanted to keep it. So, I'd sneak out to see Jacob. When I came back, I'd get yelled at, and that let me know that he still gave a damn; that even though he was suddenly busy, somewhere inside him was the Daddy that used to sit me up in the engine of whatever car he was working on and tell me how it worked while I handed him tools to take it apart. Thirteen year old logic can be strange sometimes, and when I was thirteen and Jonothan proposed, I said yes. I don't... I don't know why; he wasn't perfect, he wasn't Mr. Right, and he didn't love me, but I said yes anyway. I know that when I was thirteen, Jonothan Faux and Daddy's love were entwined, but that was about all I knew," Angelica replied darkly. "But, when I married Jonothan, I didn't have anyone left. Danny didn't know, Dad didn't care, and Mom was dead by then; my mom at least. Danny's mom was still alive, but my mom was long gone."

"What do you mean?" Flack asked through a mouthful of spaghetti.

"You didn't listen when I said my name, did you? Angelica Marie Constantine _Ambrose_-Messer-Faux. When I get my divorce, it'll be Angelica Marie Constantine Ambrose-Messer again, but that's it. My biological mother was Constantine Ambrose, and she was Dad's mysterious girlfriend until I was born and he brought me home with him."

"So you're only Danny's half sister?" Flack asked.

"I... I don't really know. You see, any normal woman would have left Dad when he brought me home, but Ma was fine. She didn't say a word about it; just accepted me into the fold like the rest. I don't know if she was unable to bear children or not, but I know that she treated us like her own. Constantine Ambrose died four years after I was born. She over dosed on heroin."

"That doesn't surprise me," Flack whispered.

"You've seen too many heroin overdoses, just like the rest of us in this city, haven't you?"

"Too many to count. We pick up accidental over doses on the streets all the time. It makes me feel like the street cleaning crew."

"Sounds like you get your hands full at the office on a daily basis," Angelica said before taking a bite of spaghetti. Her plate was almost gone, but Flack had learned that she couldn't stand to eat very much. Last night, after dinner, she had explained that for the first year, she had been given three meals a day. The second year, she had been given two. For her third and fourth years of confinement, she had been given one meal of increasingly smaller proportions until she was getting a small Styrofoam cup of cabbage soup everyday and that was it. At thirteen, she had weight ninety pounds. In four years, she had lost approximately fifty of those ninety pounds. She weighed, fat and muscle included, a very small forty five pounds. If she hadn't managed to go six months before her husband found out that she was pregnant, she probably would have weighed closer to twenty pounds and would have been unable to walk very far without resting. As it stood, she had been forced to sit on the train to the mall where the Hot Topic store was, despite her want to stand. Her leg muscles had started to atrophy. She had told Stella that getting to Louie's house had been a miracle, and later, Flack had heard Danny backing it up by saying that Faux's house was on the upper east side of Brooklyn. Louie lived in the lower west side of Manhattan. Danny had later come up to Flack and asked him to build her back up again; he was scared of losing her to anorexia. Flack had promised to start feeding her a little extra at meal-times.

"What did you go to Princeton for, anyway?" Flack asked before he took another bite from his plate.

"Criminalistics," Angelica said softly as she pushed her plate back. She had finished all of her spaghetti and was just waiting for him to be done.

"Why do you do that?" Flack asked, looking at her.

"Do what?" Angelica asked curiously, looking around at herself.

"What you did today? Hide behind that cold mask? We know you're scared, and it's okay to be scared," Flack replied.

"I'm not scared. I think that's what makes Danny so angry about this whole thing. I'm not scared. He told me I should be, but I'm not. I'm just... I'm angry. I can never go back. I lost four years to that narcissistic asshole and his basement prison and I can never get them back. I'm not scared of him; he raped other women too, and their families lost them. I'm just... I lost what I was, and I don't know if I can ever get it back. I would have fought Mac Taylor tooth and nail about the protective custody thing, but... but I can see where he's coming from and he's just trying to do his job. I'm not the immature little Messer I used to be. I'm still a bitch, and maybe one day I'll be someone's girl again, but... I'll never be able to be a wife. I won't be a mother like the one I had. I won't... I won't ever be a teenager again. I don't really think I ever was. He threw me in that basement, and I skipped five years of being a teenager. Suddenly, I was an adult and I had to make a choice."

"Do you like baseball?" Flack asked suddenly.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Angelica asked, and suddenly she was laughing again. "Yes, I like baseball. I love the Yankees."

"Good. We're going to a game tomorrow. You, me and Danny. Every little sister deserves to have her big brother take her to a Yankees game," Flack replied with a dimpled grin.

"Well, alright then."

Flack awoke in the middle of the night to loud screams coming from his bedroom. He shot off the couch and raced into the room, only to find what Angelica had meant by ruining his sheets.

Her hands were twisted into fists in the white sheets, and she was bunched up in a tight ball. Tears raced down her cheeks as she began hitting the bed. Flack dove on the mattress and grabbed her by the arms.

"Sh, Angelica, sh. It's just me. You're out! You're fine! Tomorrow, you'll be free! Angie, baby, please calm down," Flack cooed to her as he managed to wake her up.

She didn't say anything. She didn't flinch away from him. For a moment, she was still and silent. And then, she curled into him, tears rolling again. She didn't explain her nightmare to him; she didn't have to. He knew that she would spend the rest of her life reliving the events of that basement in her dreams. There was nothing he could do about it. But he could offer her a shoulder to cry on, a body to hug, and an ear to listen. It was the least he could do.

"Ummm... Detective Flack?" Angelica asked tentatively the next morning. Flack was seated on the couch, and she had been in the shower.

"It's Don. What do you need?" Flack asked quickly, standing up and heading to the bathroom.

"Your newest ex-girlfriend wouldn't happen to have left any tampons or pads here, would she?" Angelica called out quietly.

"Um... Oh... OH!... Uh, let me get Lindsay on the phone real fast," Flack said, stumbling over many options; Lindsay was the closest and she was off duty. Plus, Danny was coming over anyway. "Hey, is Lindsay there, Danny?"

_"Why?"_ Danny asked.

"Because your sister needs something that I don't think you want to get for her," Flack replied softly.

_"Ummm... oh... OH! Oh, okay, I get it. Here she is,"_ Danny said, and there was rustling as Danny handed Lindsay the phone. _"What's going on?"_

"Angelica needs tampons," Flack said, and he felt his face go red.

_"Got it; give her the phone real fast,"_ Lindsay answered, and Flack could hear her giggling on the other end. She had caught his embarrassment.

"Angelica! Lindsay needs to talk to you," Flack called into the bedroom. His eyes were shut as he stepped in.

"You can open your eyes. I'm decent," Angelica said softly. "And if you're Don, I'm Angie, ok?"

"Sure," Flack said, thunderstruck as he handed her the phone.

He looked her up and down once and found himself amazed at the transformation. She was wearing a pair of tight black jeans with a Guns 'n' Roses t-shirt thrown over the top. Her hair was pulled back, and Flack could clearly see where the bruises and cuts on her neck and face were. She displayed them like battle scars. Her eyes were covered in black eye shadow that he hadn't even seen her purchase. She wore dark black eyeliner beneath them, and her lips were painted red.

"Yeah, it's me. Mhm. Heavier than I've ever been," she laughed. "Hey, could you ask Danny if he's still got my old Yankees jersey?"

Flack could hear a shouted yeah from Danny. "Ask him to bring it, too. I have to have the proper attire for this," she laughed. "Ok. See you around."

"You all set," Flack choked.

"Yeah. If I've learned one thing from living in that damn basement, it's that toilet paper has more than one use," she laughed as she handed the phone back.

"Alright, well, breakfast is done if you want it."

_**I just wanted to apologize for the space between updates. I've had some severe writer's block as of late due to total and complete lack of sufficient carnage to fuel my imagination. That, and I've been busy trying to wrestle my five months back-pay out of my parents. Ah the joys of being a babysitter. Thanks for being out there and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**_

_**(Reviews and **__**CONTRUCTIVE**__** criticism help me to work to make these stories as good as possible.)**_

_**Thanks,**_

_**MR**_


	5. 4 Bottom of the Ninth Bites the Dust

**Bloody hell! I've left you with... well... with nothing of worth while recognition. I apologize. Between school and work (plus this huge thing called a crush I've got on the boss man) I've been a busy little under paid, under appreciated, overworked intern... not. Under appreciated... more like over appreciated and occasionally over estimated. Overworked? Hah! not even close.**

**I'm rambling, aren't I?**

***smack***

Chapter Four- Bottom Of The Ninth (Bites The Dust)

"Alright, here are the tampons that Lindsay bought. And here is _the_ most vintage Yankees jersey in the whole of New York," Danny laughed, handing his younger sister the plastic bag.

"Ah, my beautiful, beautiful NYC paraphernalia. And, as much as I love having a period again, I'm starting to remember why I didn't miss it," Angie laughed as she wrapped one skinny arm around her brother.

Carefully, she raced back to the bathroom while Danny went in and sat at the island. He stared at the window wall for a while before he spoke. "Do you really think this is smart; taking her to a Yankees game with what she's been through?" he asked Flack as the detective sat down across from him.

"Danny, she's dealt with this for four years. Don't you dare tell her I'm telling you this, but we got to talking last night over dinner. She thinks she's found what irritates you most about this. She's not scared. She's not in any physical pain aside from the scrapes and bruises she still has. She's... she's just angry about what she lost. But, she's coping better than anyone I've ever seen, Danny. She's doing so much better than any other rape victims. She wants to get moving again; she wants to keep going instead of sitting and dwelling. This is going to be healthy for her," Flack assured his friend.

"Is he being pessimistic again?" Angie asked from the kitchen doorway.

"As is the usual Danny Messer style, yes," Flack answered with a grin.

"I'm just being my usual worried big brother," Danny answered as he stood. "Are we going or what?"

"C'MON RODRIGUEZ! HIT IT HOME BABY!" Angie shouted along with thousands of other New Yorkers as Alex Rodriguez stepped up to bat. Angie sat back down, covering up the back of her jersey. However, Danny knew what it said as intimately as he knew his wife; Angie and he had shared the jersey for the longest time. On the back, there was a number seven. Above it was printed the last name of one of the single greatest ball players in history; Mantle. Their father had had it before Louie, Louie had it before Danny, Danny had it before he _and_ Angie had it, and then, in '97, Danny had given the ancient jersey, sewn together in more places than one cared to count, to her for her seventh birthday. The young girl had been overjoyed, and had leaped on him for a full hour before letting go. Even then, she followed Danny around the house looking up at him like he was her idol. The shirt itself had been thirty two years old then, bought in '65 for an aging man with a baseball fetish. It was now forty four years old and well taken care of, even if it did have to be dry-cleaned anymore. It had thrived well, but when you took into account the fact that the Messers had only ever had enough money for one or two ball games a year, and the only other time it got worn was on a day when the Yanks made it to the World Series, and the rest of its life was spent in a plastic bag that sat first in Messer Sr.'s drawer, then on Louie's baseball shelf, then in Danny's dresser, and finally in Angie's closet, it wasn't that hard to believe it had weathered the years.

"You know, Ange, you could donate that thing to a museum," Danny said softly, putting his arm on her seat back.

"Hey, don't talk like that; you'll hurt its feelings, Danny," Angie replied, clutching the shirt. "It's okay baby, he was joking... even if it's true."

"Ha, you admit it!" Danny cackled.

"I've always said this thing was ancient. That was the beauty of it; it was so old when I got it that it wasn't funny," Angie replied with a smile.

Collectively, Danny, Angie and Flack let out a loud shout when Rodriguez hit a homer out past center field. Angie had already gotten her game ball for the day, having caught it bare handed when Jeter had been up in the second inning. It was bottom of the ninth, and the Yankees were holding on to a 4-3 lead against those nasty old Red Sox. Oh, wait, with the Grand Slam, make that an 8-3 lead.

"How bout that? We got it in the bag!" Angie shouted.

"Ah, that's the only thing you've got in the bag, Angelica," came a dark voice from behind them. Angie stiffened at the sound, and she ducked behind Flack and Danny, scared for her life for the first time in eons. They all turned to face Jonothan Faux, in the flesh, standing beside their row, right beside where Angie had once been seated.

"Get out of here," Flack hissed, his arms protectively holding Angie behind him.

"No, stay, so I can get a crack at you, you bastard," Danny snarled and he took one step forward. That one step was enough.

"Danny, STOP!" Angie screamed, and at first, Danny didn't understand why. Then, he saw Stella, Mac, and Doc Hawkes running across the bottom row of stands. Mac was in front of him in an instant.

"Jonothan Faux, you're under arrest for the rape of twenty four women and the murder of twenty three," Mac told him, and Danny pulled a pair of cuffs out of his back pocket. He slapped them on Jonothan's wrists.

"Detective Taylor, you don't have anything that will hold up in trial," Jonothan laughed.

"Oh really, you bastard. Maybe you should have checked your trophy drawer! It's fuckin' empty asshole. They have every single one of the condoms!" Angie snarled, and now Danny and Mac had to hold her back. "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME, YOU BASTARD! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING I HAD LEFT AND TURNED IT INTO _**NOTHING**_!"

"Flack, take him down to the patrol car," Mac ordered.

"With pleasure," Flack spat, and he marched Jonothan Faux down the steps of the stands.

Mac turned back to the young, once innocent nineteen year old girl to find that she had collapsed into pieces. The ball game was over, and the team was filing out of the stadium. Everyone had gone silent at the shouting coming from the stands at left field, and they had all suddenly recognized the witness for the Faux Rape Spree. Danny was sitting with the small, fragile girl in his arms, looking up at Mac with wide eyes; he didn't know what to do.

"Excuse me, miss, but are you Angelica Messer? The little girl that Jonothan Faux... kept?" asked a calm voice from behind the three.

Angie lifted her head and nodded at the man in the aisle; Alex Rodriguez.

"I noticed you caught one of Derek's fly balls. Can I see it for a moment?" he asked.

Angie, sniffling a little, handed him the ball. "Don't go anywhere," A-Rod added.

Silently, he ran down the steps of the stands and to the steps leading into the inside of the stadium. Angie stood up silently and wiped her eyes. She looked from Mac to Danny in a kind of whirlwind before she finally calmed. "I'm sorry about that. I overreacted and you had to witness it," she apologized softly. Then, up the stairs again, came A-Rod. He handed her a ball in silence, and she looked from it to him in silent ecstasy and euphoria.

"No child should have to go through what you went through," he said softly, and then he went back down the stairs again.

"Wow," Danny said as he looked over her stunned shoulder. "The whole damn team signed it. Chick, you are one lucky Yankees fan."

Mac and Danny steered her out of the stadium and into Flack's waiting custody, but that was where Danny reached his limit.

"He's going to court. Can't she come stay with me?" Danny asked darkly.

"Danny, that is something you, her and Flack have to decide on yourselves. Flack chose to take her into protective custody and she never protested. She's not a minor anymore; neither you nor I can make the decision on where she goes," Mac answered bracingly.

Danny, empowered, walked up to Flack. "I'd like my sister back now," he said softly.

"No, Danny," Angie said from behind Flack.

"Huh?" Danny and Flack said in unison.

"I said no. I'm staying with Flack until the trial's over and then I'm getting a place of my own," she said firmly, but gently.

"Am I really that horrible to live with?" Danny asked.

"No, Danny. I just... I can't... Just trust me; it's better this way," Angie answered, passing over several ways to convey what she meant before settling on one.

"Nightmares," Danny breathed.

Angie gave a slight nod before she slipped into Flack's car from under his arm. As he shut the door, she clicked her seat belt and rested her head against the seat back. "Look, Messer, you can come over to my place any time you want; you know that. Come over when you feel the need, ok? She's your little sister; that gives you the exclusive right to come knocking on my door at five in the morning," Flack told his best friend softly.

"I'll hold you to that," Danny replied. Silently, he jumped onto his cycle. He threw one last, longing glance at Flack's car before he started the bike and roared off away from Yankee Stadium.

Flack shook his head softly before he started around the car and slipped inside. He was silent as he started the car and slipped into the sea of traffic. For six city blocks, the ride was silent except for the honking of cars and the ceaseless starting and stopping of engines. Finally, Angie opened her mouth to speak, thought better of it and shut it again. Four blocks away, she opened her mouth again, but Flack cut her off.

"You don't have to apologize," Flack said softly.

"I wasn't going to. I just wanted to let you know that I'm grateful for what you've done, and that I had an ulterior motive for wanting to stay with you," she said softly, looking over at him. Her sapphire eyes were filled with fear, and Flack knew that another admission was coming up.

"And what's that?" Flack whispered.

"You're fun to be around. With Danny, it'd be awkward, especially with what I've got coming up," Angie replied softly.

"What's coming up?" Flack asked.

"I'm getting a job at NYPD."

_**Terribly sorry about the wait. Read and Review!**_


	6. 5 Job Interviews Not Another One

Chapter Five- Job Interviews (Good God, Not Another One)

"Angie, we've got everything we need to convict; you don't have to give anymore testimony," Mac said as the frail girl entered his office alone. Quietly, she took a seat in front of his desk. She was silent for a moment before she opened her bag. Carefully, she pulled a file from within its depths.

"I'd like to apply for the open CSI position on your shift, Detective Taylor," she said as she placed the file on his desk.

"Have you spoken to Danny about this?" Mac asked carefully. His eyes were guarded at the thought of having the two Messers on the same shift.

"No, I haven't. I'd like to wait until I've got an answer that way Danny can't come raging around and make you change your mind. I can handle him; of that I assure you," she answered just as carefully. Her words were just as chosen as the words she had given in the interrogation room and on the witness stand the previous day.

"Have you told him what went on in that basement yet?" Mac asked.

"I was planning to tell him tonight. He invited me over for dinner, and I figured that after it, he'd probably bombard me with questions, so I would tell him then," Angie answered.

"I have a hundred other possibles waiting in line. You're the only one that's hand delivered their resume to me. Have you ever worked in a lab before?" Mac asked as he opened the folder.

"To get my certification, I had to take an internship. I took it at the lab in Jersey City; the second busiest lab on the East Coast," Angie answered quietly.

"I understand that you passed up staying with your brother to stay with Flack. May I ask why?" he said quietly, flipping through the resume.

"With the nightmares, it would be a bad idea for me to stay with Danny. And, it would be awkward; his nineteen year old sister staying with him and his wife is the kind of awkward I like to avoid as much as possible," she said with a smile.

"Well, you're certainly over qualified. These kinds of credentials are the kind required to get a job in an FBI profiling unit, and they certainly make a lot more that we do," Mac said softly. "Princeton, good words from the Jersey City lab, and an honorary Ph. D. from Princeton in a year; when did you have time to sleep or eat?"

"In class," she answered with a smile. Slowly, she was beginning to get more comfortable around the detective.

"And your discomfort around males; can you overcome that and work with this lab as a team?" Mac asked, looking her in the eyes.

She looked taken aback by the question, but recovered quickly enough. She looked him dead in the eyes and nodded her head. "Yes, I can overcome it. I understand that no one here will hurt me; it's a habit to flinch away. Habits can be broken," she said softly.

"You'll know in three or four days," Mac said.

"Alright," she said, looking much happier in a way. It was as if moving forward again was suddenly bringing her back to the surface. She knew better than to expect the nightmares to stop, even if Flack had taken to coming into the room and trying to comfort her after one, but moving forward would be preferable to sitting around and moping; she needed to make new memories and live a new life.

"Danny," Angie said after dinner that night, when she was sitting beside him on the couch. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Danny asked.

"About... about the basement and you have to promise me that you won't freak out until after I'm done and after you freak out you have to promise not to do anything stupid like march down to the jail and try to shoot him or something. He's been convicted, let it go," Angie answered softly.

"Tell me this; how many times did he rape you?" Danny asked.

"_He_ raped me five hundred and ninety-seven times," Angie whispered.

"How many times were you raped?"

"One thousand, eight hundred and thirty-seven times," she answered carefully.

"Were you ever pregnant?"

"Once."

"Where's the baby?"

This was the question Angie had been dreading. Even if the child was the product of a monster, it was still a child. The death of a child made Danny very, very, very angry. She tried to think of a way to skirt the question without lying. Steeling herself, she said a silent prayer. "Dead," she whispered.

It was like watching someone play with the tint on a television screen, except this was with much more color. Danny's face first went a brilliant sea green, like he was going to be sick, then it returned to a pale color, then he went blue, and finally, his face took on an ugly maroon tinge that told you he was about to blow his stack. Angie flew behind the couch in fear, and Flack was approaching when they both heard it. "I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Y-You... you blame yourself?" Flack asked in disbelief. "You were incapacitated. He used thirty-two gallons of bleach and a coat hanger, Angie. It wasn't your fault."

"Do you know how long it takes to pour thirty-two gallons of bleach, Flack?" she asked, standing up. "An hour; I had a full hour that I could have fought him, and I couldn't get my brains back together before the last drop was in me and the babies didn't have any chance."

And everyone froze at that. She had only specified that she'd been pregnant, had an abortion performed on her, and expelled the after birth and pieces. She had said absolutely nothing about there being another child. "You were pregnant with twins and he killed them both?" Danny growled darkly.

"Yes..."

"How far along?" Danny asked.

"Danny, please..."

"HOW FAR!"

"Six months," Angie whimpered.

"Danny, calm down," Flack said, and he locked Danny's arms behind his back.

"Let me go Flack. I'll give you a reason to arrest me."

"NO!" Angie cried. "Danny... if you go near him... I-I'll leave."

Danny paled at that statement. She had threatened him with the only thing she had left, and Danny found he had to know why. "He could have killed you. Why does he deserve to live?"

"Because I'm not going to let you throw the badge that you gave up everything for away for me, Danny. You're not throwing it away on me," Angie cried.

Tears rolled down her face as Danny approached her quietly. He knelt beside her and wrapped his arms around her. Silently, he cooed to her, wishing that he could do something more to alleviate the pain that she had to feel. "I'm sorry, Angie. Oh, I'm so sorry," he whispered to her.


	7. Notice

NOTICE:

Okay, so I broke my flash-drive with all my files on it and dummy me never got around to backing the damn thing up. So, until I can afford to take it in and get it fixed or whatever, I'm going to _**attempt**_ to write from memory. I can't promise that I'll get all of the stories that I had up exactly the way that they are on the flash drive, which means that I may have to sit down and re-write them. I also can't promise that the flash drive will be fixed and data will be recoverable. In the event of this latter instance, I will finish from memory. And, who knows? Maybe this is a good thing. The thing was getting a little cluttered anyway…

Who the hell am I kidding?

Sorry for the inconvenience,

Midnight Rhymer & Management


End file.
